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“My name is Charles Parker. My birth certificate says Charles Lewin.”
Escaping Berlin just before WWII, Charles’s father fled to Kent’s Kitchener Camp. To join the British Army, he was forced to drop his Jewish surname to protect himself and his family.
From camp cellist to playing for troops with ENSA, he eventually built a new life with his family in South Wales. A moving look at the hidden sacrifices of WWII refugees.
“The logical but horrendous conclusion to prejudice and racism is genocide.”
Holocaust survivor Eva Clarke BEM reflects on why she continues to share her story with future generations. Beyond honoring the millions of lives lost whose entire families were wiped out, she highlights the vital importance of seeing people as individuals rather than succumbing to mob mentality. Crucially, she warns that unaddressed prejudice and hatred carry a devastating ultimate outcome, reminding us all that standing against racism in any form is essential to preventing future genocides.
Charlotte was born in Vienna, Austria in February 1935. Following the Anschluss in 1938 her father was arrested and the family sent to live in the ghetto but they were fortunate to get sponsorship from an English farmer and be able to leave Austria together in May 1939. Many members of the extended family were not so fortunate and perished in the camps. Sadly, Charlotte’s parents both suffered from ill-health so growing-up was a difficult time for her, and she herself suffered from anxiety as a young mother. Charlotte and David have been married for 57 happy years.
Read Charlotte’s fully story in the My Story section on the AJR website.
“He never told me anything about it...”
Rachel Meller shares her father Joseph’s incredible journey, from fleeing Vienna to Kitchener Camp in 1939, to internment, and ultimately to safety. A powerful reminder of resilience and the hidden stories preserved in old papers and family histories
Myth busting: Kindertransport
‘Was the Kindertransport free?.’
In the months leading up to the outbreak of WWII, a 9-year-old Gerta Neumark managed to escape Vienna along with her two older brothers. However their mother, and dozens of family members across Austria and Poland, would be murdered in the Holocaust.
Gerta’s grandson, Oliver Marsh, considers what lessons could still be learned from stories like these, in a world that hasn’t always heeded them.
Did you know this secret about London’s ancient walls?
In the 1500s, workers repairing the London Wall made a startling discovery: Hebrew inscriptions on the stones.
Where the Barbican stands today was once the site of England’s medieval Jewish cemetery.
Following the expulsion of Jews in 1290, the cemetery was destroyed, and the headstones were repurposed as building materials for the city walls.
In 1938, thousands of German and Austrian Jewish refugees who had fled to the Sudetenland were forced to flee again, this time to Prague, as Nazi Germany demanded and occupied Czechoslovakia’s border regions.
Following the Munich Agreement in September 1938 and the German occupation of Prague in March 1939, a critical rescue effort was galvanised: the Kindertransport from Czechoslovakia.
As Kindertransport scholar Dr Amy Williams explains, Britain’s relief efforts during this period extended beyond Jewish refugees, offering refuge to political dissidents, including social democrats and communists fleeing Nazi persecution.
Reflecting on history helps us honour the courage of those who sought refuge and the resilience of those who saved them.
